Periyar: A Political Biography of E.V. Ramaswamy

by Bala Jeyaraman

But despite these hiccups Periyar campaigned himself to exhaustion.

‘MGR is not one of us and he doesn’t belong to our race. Why did Annadurai allow him to join the party? Maybe if he did not have tax problems, he would not have started a new party.’

Periyar’s ideology was not suited for electoral politics. Successful politicians have to take care not to offend too many of their constituents.

Even when his health failed in his final years, he had himself wheeled to public meetings with a urine bucket in tow.

Till his advent, only nationalism was used to mobilize the masses—he proved that social issues too could be used to do that.

Despite his venomous attacks on Brahmins, he seems to have had little personal animosity towards them (as evidenced by his friendship with prominent Brahmins like Rajaji). Periyar remains a highly hated and divisive figure for Hindu right-wing organizations like the Hindu Munnani, the RSS and other Sangh Parivar outfits in Tamil Nadu.

Atheism and criticism of religious rituals are no longer fashionable in Tamil politics. Among all the major Dravidian party leaders, only Karunanidhi is still openly atheistic.